Chapter Two

Inside the Frasier house forty or so friends and family were celebrating Cassandra's first day as Janet's daughter. Well, it was totally official yet, but it would be in a few weeks. For now the court was allowing Cassie to live with Janet on a trial basis. Then, if she continued to do well, the judge would make it all legal. Cassie had already asked to change her name to Frasier, and that was the name she had registered under on her first day of school in Colorado Springs.

Things were way different here compared to her old life on Hanka. Of course the major difference was that her parents were dead, and she was living with Janet. The other huge difference was that Earth was a wonderfully exciting place full of all sorts of new things! Hanka had been a world where the fathers worked in the fields, or worked somehow with their hands. Here it seemed to Cassie most people worked with their minds, specially the people she had met so far.

Her new mother, Janet Frasier, was a Doctor of Medicine, a fact that made Cassie very proud when she had talked about Janet with her classmates at school. And now she had three fathers...er...uncles! Or a least it seemed that way. There was Daniel, who took her places and brought dinner with him whenever he came to visit. She really like the stuff called KFC, but she always had to fight him for the drumsticks!

And then there was Teal'c, this huge guy with a gold tattoo on his forehead. She knew that he had once been in charge of a lot of men like him, and that they had worked for a very bad man called a Goa'uld. Cassie was really glad that Teal'c no longer worked for the bad man, and had come to work for General Hammond instead.

General Hammond was nice to her, and she thought he reminded her of her mother's father, so she called him Grandfather Hammond, a name that brought a big smile to his face. And of course her third uncle was the man who was just about as brave as any man could be! He was a Colonel in the Air Force of her new country...which she had been told by Daniel was a very great honor indeed.

Cassie just thought that Jack O'Neill was the best thing since chocolate ice cream...a treat that she had only just discovered two weeks ago when he took her to an ice cream store...the name of which she couldn't remember just now, but it had pretty pink and brown dots all over the posters and on the paper cup.

And now she saw Jack and her face exploded into a huge smile. He was coming into Janet's house and he was carrying a huge box that he sat down on the floor just inside the door. He had brought the biggest gift-wrapped package she had ever seen in her entire life, and it was for her!

"Jack," she shouted as she ran up and tackled the man. She had launched herself and was now clinging to him with arms and legs wrapped around his tall frame. He hugged her back, placed a loud smacking kiss on the mouth, and then he lowered her to the floor.

"Whoa, there, missy! Gonna damage the merchandise," he told her, laughing. Then Cassie noticed the woman standing on the porch as though she was afraid to enter the house. Janet had stepped up to greet her, and Cassie went over to lean against her new mother.

"Sam, I'm glad you came," Janet said, and then the two were hugging and crying. And Cassie was pulled into the hug as well.

"I'm so glad you're here, Sam! I've got loads of things to tell you," Cassie enthused, taking Sam's hand and pulling her inside, while Janet closed the door. Jack was relieved to see that Sam had gotten over this first hurdle. Now if she could just be convinced that she was not the bad guy here!

"Come on, everyone's here now, so let's eat," Janet shouted. Everyone shouted and people began filing into the dining room to help themselves to the buffet that she had set out.

"Cassie, let's get something to eat first, and then you can sit with me and tell me what you've been doing. I want to hear all about your new school. Sam will sit with us, won't you Sam?" Jack wanted to keep Sam involved in the conversation. Maybe that would help. So the three of them got in line behind Teal'c, who Jack just had to tease.

"T, remember that table of food is not there just for you," he said to the man who was piling huge mounds of meat, potatoes and salad onto his plate. "You gotta leave some for us puny Earthlings, buddy!"

Cassie laughed at Jack's humor and giggled when he tickled her under the arms. Teal'c gave Jack a patient look, as though he were a naughty child. Then he helped Cassie with the roast beef, placing a big slab on her plate.

"Teal'c, what 'cha got here is a small girl, not a football player! Gimme that slice and let's get you a smaller one, Cassie." Jack had stuck his fork into the huge serving of meat and transferred it to his own plate. Then he put a smaller slice on Cassie's plate. Janet had come up behind them and was watching the goings on with amusement. Her boys definitely needed watching, she thought with affection.

"Playing with my daughter's food, Colonel O'Neill?"

"No Ma'am! Just reorganizing the spoils here. Wouldn't want her to get a belly ache from eating too much, now would ya?"

"Just make sure you eat your food before you go out to play, Colonel," the petite Doctor teased. Jack made a face at her and put dollops of mashed potatoes on his and Cassie's plates. Meanwhile Sam had been following along behind Jack, but she wasn't taking any food.

"Sam, get something on that plate," Janet ordered her. She may have been her friend, but she was still her doctor, and she would not have Sam going anorexic on her!

"You better do as she says, Sam, or she'll lock you up in that infirmary of hers. I know for a fact she's got these huge needles."

Janet slapped Jack on the arm and then went to get more mashed potatoes. Fortunately she had ordered a lot of food from the caterer. She shook her head when she thought about Jack O'Neill; he was such a puzzle. Sometimes he was way too stubborn and insubordinate for his own good...his file had the black marks to show it...but when it came right down to it, he was a really good, reliable and caring person. The kind of person who would have made a great father, if only...

'Don't go there, Janet,' she chided herself. She knew the man only had eyes for one woman, and that woman was standing behind him right now. Too bad he could never tell her, she thought. She didn't necessarily like the regs, but she understood why they were important. Fleetingly Janet wondered if she should make an announcement that Jack had paid the catering bill, but she quickly thought better of it. He wouldn't want to take the credit, and she knew it.

TBC